Free Republic

Looked at from a distance, it may seem as if the Supreme Court struck a mighty blow in defense of religious liberty in the case of Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, which it decided this week. Yes, the court ruled that a law called the Religious Freedom Restoration Act could apply to "closely held" corporations, and under its terms the federal government could not force the Christian family that owns Hobby Lobby to provide insurance coverage for certain drugs and devices that violate the family's religious beliefs. But looked at more closely, the case shows how profoundly the Supreme Court has...

A few weeks ago, this column ran a story exposing just a few of the shocking ethics violations that occurred in conjunction with a clinical trial called SUPPORT (Surfactant, Positive Pressure, and Oxygenation Randomized Trial). The trial’s primary purpose was to examine the efficacy of two experimental strategies for managing oxygen and two strategies of ventilation therapy in extremely premature babies. As noted in the earlier piece, the consent forms left much to be desired. In fact, it is likely that if the risks to the babies were properly outlined, few if any parents would have agreed for their children...

A Health and Human Services official refused to allow a member of Congress to enter a facility in his district where some one the unaccompanied immigrant children ae being housed. Representative Jim Bridenstine (R., Okla.) was told he could schedule an appointment for July 21. ““What are they trying to hide?” Bridenstine said after the incident. ”Do they not want the children to speak with Members of Congress? As a Navy pilot, I have been involved in operations countering illicit human trafficking. I would like to know to whom these children are being released.” There are 1,200 immigrant children at...

Late yesterday, the first fruits of the Hobby Lobby decision fell into the lap of EWTN, the Catholic satellite television station which has fought the HHS mandate into the appellate court. Today would have been the first day that EWTN would have to start paying ruinous fines for refusing to provide free contraception and sterilization in its health insurance coverage. Fortunately, the Eleventh Circuit granted a stay not long after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby: In a resounding victory for religious freedom, today EWTN was granted last minute relief from the Eleventh Circuit Court of...

The Supreme Court decision in the Hobby Lobby case should be seen as a clear and important victory for religious liberty. The majority opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito, makes it clear that owners of closely held corporations, based on their sincerely held religious convictions, have the right to opt out of the so-called HHS mandate – the regulatory requirement that employers must include free contraceptives, sterilization procedures, and abortifacient products in their health-insurance offerings to workers. The plaintiffs in this case should be commended for having the courage to fight for their rights in court and for seeing their...

Two years ago, I sat on a panel before Congress, testifying to the importance of religious liberty in America today. It seems like a long time ago. Since then, we have seen and heard a steady stream of news, from the church and the culture, about the Health and Human Services’ mandate and the Affordable Care Act, abortifacients and the conscience, religious freedoms and what this means for women. Thankfully, the wait is over. The Supreme Court has ruled, and the verdict is in: In a landmark case, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of religious liberty, specifically in regard...

Pro-life demonstrators celebrate June 30 outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington as its decision in the Hobby Lobby case is announced. (CNS photo/ Jonathan Ernst, Reuters) The president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, together with the chairman of the conference’s Committee for Religious Liberty, released a statement earlier today in response to the US Supreme Court’s ruling in the Hobby Lobby religious freedom case. The joint statement from Archbishop Joseph Kurtz and Archbishop William Lori praised the Supreme Court for “[recognizing] that Americans can continue to follow their faith when they run a family business.”...

The Supreme Court ruled today that the Christian-run Hobby Lobby doesn’t have to obey the HHS mandate that is a part of Obamacare that requires businesses to pay for abortion causing drugs in their employee health care plans.The Obama administration was attempting to make Hobby Lobby and thousands of pro-life businesses and organizations comply with the HHS mandate that compels religious companies to pay for birth control and abortion-causing drugs for their employees. However, the U.S. Supreme Court today issued a favorable ruling in Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., a landmark case addressing the Constitutionally guaranteed rights of business...

LAWRENCEVILLE, Virginia—Over 1,000 angry residents of the small, rural town here gathered at Brunswick High School on Thursday and reamed out local, state, and federal government officials for offering the St. Paul’s College building as temporary emergency shelter for 500 unaccompanied alien children (UACs) coming from Texas. St. Paul’s, a historically black college, shut down five years ago after losing its accreditation. “Right now we have a town—I can go home. I can get supper. At 9 o'clock at night I can come back to my office by myself, go in there and do work, come out at 11:30, get...

IRONDALE, AL – A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that the network founded by Mother Angelica must comply with the HHS mandate, despite its deep-seated religious objections, because the ObamaCare provision does not violate the First Amendment. "EWTN doesn't have to comply with the mandate. All it has to do is sign a form certifying its opposition to the use of contraceptives and then deliver that form to its third-party administrator." U.S. District Judge Callie Granade ruled in Mobile that the Obama administration may compel the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) to comply with a provision furnishing female employees with...

Just days before the Supreme Court is scheduled to consider the biggest case against the HHS abortion mandate that is a part of Obamacare, a lower court is forcing the Catholic television station EWTN to obey it. pichealth36bU.S. District Court Judge Callie V.S. Granade of Mobile, Alabama issued an opinion yesterday denying EWTN Global Catholic Network protection from the government mandate that it must provide coverage of contraception, abortion-inducing drugs and sterilization as part of its employee health care coverage. “We are extremely disappointed with the decision reached by the court in this case,” said EWTN Chairman and CEO Michael...

The Americans who qualify for tax credits through the new federal insurance exchange are paying an average of $82 a month in premiums for their coverage — about one-fourth the bill they would have faced without such financial help, according to a new government analysis. But the analysis shows wide variations among states in the premiums that people are paying for their new insurance, the amount the government is picking up and the proportion who qualify for the subsidies. The 28-page report, by the Department of Health and Human Services, is the government’s first effort to gauge the affordability and...

A hospital in Michigan is coming under fire from a parents after its staff attempted to take a Mother’s daughter and give her a private talk promoting birth control and sexual relations. The story is coming out on the same day LifeNews is reporting that Justina Pelletier is finally heading home to her parents’ custody after a lengthy headline-grabbing legal battle with the state of Massachusetts, which took their daughter away from them. OneNewsNow has the full details on this story, which should come as a warning to parents: michigan2After running up against an alleged state law that sweeps aside...

In a SHOCKING discovery, CGI Federal – the Canadian Company that built the Obamacare website – appears to have a connection to the “Innocence of Muslims” video the Obama administration blamed for the Benghazi attacks.And here’s how it was done:The evidence is well established that in 2010, CGI acquired Stanley Associates, which “provides services to the U.S. federal civilian, defense and intelligence agencies”. [1]When the crudely produced video “Innocence of Muslims” was posted to a YouTube it needed a boost, especially since it was posted by someone no one had ever heard of and who had only uploaded two videos...

The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development was established by President John F. Kennedy, with the support of Congress, in 1962 to study the “complex process of human development from conception to old age.” In 2007, the NICHD was re-christened to include the name of Eunice Kennedy Shriver. Among NICHD’s many large projects was the so-called SUPPORT study (Surfactant, Positive Pressure, and Oxygenation Randomized Trial). The results of this study were published in May, 2010 in the New England Journal of Medicine, in an article entitled “Target Ranges of Oxygen Saturation in Extremely Preterm Infants.” According to the...

As reported here, the Catholic Benefits Association (“CBA”), has obtained a preliminary injunction against the HHS Mandate -- the federal regulation requiring non-exempt health plans to include abortion-inducing drugs and contraception. With this decision, a total of 59 preliminary injunctions, for both for-profit and non-profit entities, have been entered against the Mandate and only 8 requests for an injunction have been denied.

The real stage for the HHS contraception mandate will be the Supreme Court, where arguments have already been heard on the Hobby Lobby and Conestoga cases involving private-sector secular employers. The fight still continues in lower courts, however, and also in regard to religious employers. In Oklahoma, a federal judge issued an injunction on Wednesday blocking enforcement on more than 200 Catholic employers and thousands of parishes, thanks to a lawsuit filed in March by the Catholic Benefits Association. It is one of the few class-action suits being brought against the contraception mandate: A government attorney declined to comment...

When the Affordable Care Act passed in March 2010, HHS had three and a half years and $400 million to produce a web portal for individual-market consumers that would … pretty much do what the existing portal did for the Medicare Advantage program that ObamaCare raided to pay for its own operation. HHS rolled it out on time last October, whereupon it crashed repeatedly and had to be overhauled. A few months later, the Obama administration bragged about the system when it hit eight million signups, even though the back end couldn’t actually determine how many actually paid for...

Pro-choice propaganda artist Ron English is very controversial. His artwork, described as very disturbing, often focuses on abortion.Recently Ron English uploaded a video depicting a baby Jesus doll hanging from a coat hanger with a sign saying: Hobby Lobby Aborted Baby Jesus.It is unclear who orchestrated this vandalism or who produced the video. But Ron English just happened to go to the exact Hobby Lobby where these dolls were placed: English writes on his blog, “While at Hobby Lobby in Poughkeepsie NY, Ron came across a rack which held four crucified aborted Baby Jesus’. Wonder if they are still there?”...

Type “Obamacare rollout disaster” into the Google search engine, and you get approximately 290,000 results, most of them dating back to the days immediately following the catastrophic October 2013 launch of Healthcare.gov. Significantly, however, the most recent results focus on the Judicial Watch release on May 19, 2014. That’s the date Judicial Watch released a 106-page document we obtained on May 1 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that reveals the shocking details of the rollout disaster. Though the Obama administration tried to cover up the full extent of the website failure in the days following...